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Sobre el Libro Enlightenment:The Only Revolution
"Powerful and penetrating discourses on the famous dialogue between the mystic Ashtavakra -- one of Oshos favorite ancient Indian masters -- and King Janak. By the end of the dialogue, King Janak is enlightened. Says Osho, "There are no other statements anywhere as pure, transcendental and beyond time and space as these."
"Man has many scriptures, but none are comparable to the Gita of Ashtavakra. Before it the Vedas pale, the Upanishads are a mere whisper. Even the Bhagavadgita does not have the mere majesty found in the Ashtavakra Samhita -- it is simply unparalleled. The most important thing is that neither society, nor politics, nor any other institution of human life had any influence on the statements of Ashtavakra.
Del LibroEnlightenment:The Only Revolution
Wisdom, Liberation, and Non-attachment
Osho: Enlightenment: The Only Revolution, Chapter 1
Janak asked: Oh lord, how does one attain to wisdom? How does liberation happen? And how is nonattachment attained? Please tell me this.
Ashtavakra replied: Oh beloved, if you want liberation then renounce the passions as poison, and take forgiveness, innocence, compassion, contentment and truth as nectar. You are neither earth, nor air, nor fire, nor water, nor ether. To attain liberation, know yourself as the witnessing consciousness of all these.
If you can separate yourself from the physical body and rest in consciousness, then this very moment you will be happy, at peace, and free of bondage.
You are not a brahmin or other caste, you are not in any of the four stages of life, you are not perceived by the eyes or other senses. Unattached and without form, you are the witness of the whole universe. Know this and be happy.
Oh expansive one, religion and atheism, happiness and misery -- all are of the mind, they are not for you. You are not the doer nor the enjoyer. You have always been liberated.
We are embarking on a rare journey. Man has many scriptures, but none are comparable to the Gita of Ashtavakra. Before it the Vedas pale, the Upanishads are a mere whisper. Even the Bhagavadgita does not have the majesty found in the Ashtavakra Samhita -- it is simply unparalleled.
The most important thing is that neither society, nor politics, nor any other institution of human life had any influence on the statements of Ashtavakra. There are no other statements anywhere that are so pure, transcendental, and beyond time and space. Perhaps that is why Ashtavakras Gita, the Ashtavakra Samhita, has not had much impact.
Krishnas Bhagavadgita has been very influential. The first reason is that Krishnas Gita is a synthesis. He is more concerned with synthesis than with truth. The desire for synthesis is so strong, that if necessary Krishna doesnt mind sacrificing the truth a little.
Krishnas Gita is a hodgepodge containing everything; hence it appeals to everyone, because there is something in it for everyone. It is difficult to find any tradition whose voice is not found in the Gita. It is difficult to find anyone who does not take solace from the Gita. But for such people Ashtavakras Gita will prove very difficult.
People love Krishnas Gita because it is very easy to extract ones own meaning from it. Krishnas Gita is poetic: in it two plus two can equal five, two plus two can also equal three. No such tricks are possible with Ashtavakra. With him two plus two are exactly four. Ashtavakras statements are statements of pure mathematics. There isnt the least possibility for poetic license here. He says things as they are, without any sort of compromise.
Reading Krishnas Gita, a devotee extracts something of which he can make a belief, because Krishna spoke on bhakti, devotion. The karma yogi extracts his belief because Krishna has spoken on karma yoga, the yoga of action. The believer in knowledge finds what he wants because Krishna has spoken on knowledge as well. Somewhere Krishna calls devotion the ultimate, somewhere else he calls knowledge the ultimate, again elsewhere he calls karma yoga the ultimate.
Krishnas statements are very political. He was a politician, a perfect politician. Just to say he was a politician is not right; he was a shrewd politician, a real diplomat. In his statements he considered and included many things. This is why the Gita suits everyone, why there are thousands of commentaries on the Gita.
No one is concerned with Ashtavakra, because to accept Ashtavakra you are going to have to drop yourself -- unconditionally.
You cannot bring yourself along. Only if you stay behind can you come near him. With Krishna you can bring yourself along. With Krishna there is no need to transform yourself. With Krishna you can fit just as you are.
Hence the founders of each tradition have written commentaries on Krishnas Gita -- Shankara, Ramanuja, Nimbaraka, Vallabha -- everyone. Each has extracted his own meaning. Krishna has said things in such a way as to allow multiple meanings; hence I call his Gita poetic. You can draw out any meaning you like from a poem.
Krishnas statements are like clouds surrounding you in the rainy season: you see in them whatever you want. Someone may see an elephants trunk, someone sees the whole body of Ganesha, the elephant god. Someone may not see anything. He will say: "What nonsense! They are clouds, vapor -- how is it you see forms in them?"
In the West, psychoanalysts use the ink blot test: just pour some ink onto blotting paper and ask the person to say what he sees in it. The person looks carefully and sees something or other. There is nothing there, only an ink stain on blotting paper -- randomly thrown, not thrown with any design, just poured from the bottle. But the person looking at it finds something or other. What he finds is in his mind, he has projected it.
You must have seen lines made by rain falling on a wall. Some-times a mans face is seen, sometimes a horses face is seen. You project onto it what you want to see. In the dark of night, clothes hanging on a line seem like ghosts.
Krishnas Gita is just like this -- you will be able to see whatever is in your mind. So Shankara sees knowledge, Ramanuja sees devotion, Tilak sees action -- and each returns home in a cheerful mood thinking that what Krishna says is the same as his belief.
Emerson has written that once a neighbor came and borrowed the works of Plato from him. Plato lived two thousand years ago and is one of the worlds rare, unique thinkers. Weeks later Emerson reminded him: "If youve read the books please return them." When the neighbor returned them Emerson asked: "How did you like them?"
The man said: "This man Platos thoughts are in complete agreement with mine. I felt many times: how has this man come to know my thoughts?" Plato lived two thousand years earlier and this fellow suspects that Plato has stolen his thoughts!
This kind of suspicion often arises with Krishna too. Centuries have passed and commentaries on Krishna keep on coming. Each century finds its own meaning, each person finds his own meaning. Krishnas Gita is like an ink blotcit is the statement of the perfect politician.
You cannot extract any beliefs from Ashtavakras Gita.
Only if you drop yourself as you move into it, will Ashtavakras Gita become clear to you. Ashtavakras message is crystal clear. You wont be able to add even a small bit of your own interpretation to it. Hence people have not written commentaries on Ashtavakras Gita. There is no scope for writing a commentary; there is no way to distort or twist it. Your mind has no chance to add anything. Ashtavakra has given such an expression that no one has been able to add or take anything from it, even though centuries have passed. It is not easy to give such a perfect expression. Such skill with words is very difficult to come by.
This is why I say we are starting off on a rare journey.
Politicians have no interest in Ashtavakra. Not Tilak, not Aurobindo, not Gandhi, not Vinoba: none of them has any interest, because with Ashtavakra they cannot go on playing their own games. Tilaks interest was to inspire nationalism. He wanted the whole country to get involved in action -- and Krishnas Gita was helpful. Krishna is ready to lend a shoulder to anyone. Whosoever wants to steady themselves on his shoulder and shoot their bullets -- Krishna is ready. The shoulder is his, you can take the opportunity to hide behind it. And shooting from behind his shoulder makes even bullets appear significant.
Ashtavakra doesnt allow anyone to even rest their hand on his shoulder. So Gandhi is not interested, Tilak is not interested, Aurobindo, Vinoba have nothing to do with him, because they cannot impose anything. There is no room for politics -- Ashtavakra is not a political being.
This is the first thing you need to keep in mindcsuch crystal clarity, an expression like an open sky with no cloud in sight, you cannot see any forms. Only when you drop all forms, become disidentified with all forms and get connected with the formless, will you be able to comprehend Ashtavakra.
If you really want to understand Ashtavakra you will have to descend into the depths of meditation.
No commentary, no interpretation will be of any help.
And for meditation Ashtavakra does not ask us to sit and chant: "Ram, Ram." He says that anything you do will not be meditation. How can there be meditation when there is a doer? As long as there is doing, there is illusion. As long as the doer is present, the ego is present. Ashtavakra says becoming a witness is meditation. Then the doer disappears; you remain only as watcher, nothing but the observer. When you are nothing but the observer then only is there darshan, seeing; then only is there meditation, then only is there wisdom.
Before we enter the sutras, it is necessary to understand a few things about Ashtavakra. Not much is known as he was neither a social nor political man, so no historical record exists. Only a few incidents are known -- and they are just wondrous, hardly believable. But if you understand them deeply the significance will be revealed.
The first incident happened before Ashtavakra was born. Nothing is known of what came afterwards, but this is an incident while he was still in the womb. His father, who was a great scholar, would recite the Vedas every day while Ashtavakra listened from the womb. One day a voice came from the womb saying: "Stop it! This is all nonsense. There is no wisdom whatsoever in this. Mere words -- just a collection of words. Is wisdom found in scriptures? Wisdom is within oneself. Is truth found in words? Truth is within oneself."
Naturally his father was enraged. First of all he was a father and on top of that a scholar. And his son hidden in the womb was saying such things! Not even born yet! He exploded in anger, became engulfed in fire: the fathers ego had been hit. And a scholars egoche was a great pundit, a great debater, knowledgeable in scriptures.
In anger he uttered a curse: when born, the boy would be deformed; his limbs would be bent in eight parts. Hence his name: Ashtavakra means one whose body has eight bends. He was born crippled in eight places; eight places, hunchbacked like a camel. In a rage his father deformed his sons body.
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